Yes, people still use it —

Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 out now

The new browser will be deployed automatically through Windows Update.

Internet Explorer 11 is now available for Windows 7 users, bringing Microsoft's fastest, most secure, and most standards-compliant browser to the company's most widely used operating system.

The browser is almost—but not quite—identical to its Windows 8.1 counterpart. On Windows 8.1, the browser supports the DRM-in-HTML standard Encrypted Media Extensions, and the Windows 8.1 version has a more restrictive security sandbox. There are also various small differences between the two.

As with Internet Explorer 10—and in a change to older versions of Internet Explorer—version 11 will be rolled out as an automatic update. The first users to get the browser will be those with the Release Preview installed. It will then be rolled out to other Windows 7 users in the coming weeks or months.

Windows 8 users who want the new browser will have to upgrade to Windows 8.1.

So it's 7 or 8.1, but not 8? Strange. Here's hoping they won't make us add IE 11 to our browser testing where I work. heh Our team is already on a mix of IE 8 and 9 and anywhere from Firefox 10 LTS to being on 24 or 25.

So it's 7 or 8.1, but not 8? Strange. Here's hoping they won't make us add IE 11 to our browser testing where I work. heh Our team is already on a mix of IE 8 and 9 and anywhere from Firefox 10 LTS to being on 24 or 25.

8.1 is a service pack with delusions of grandeur; requiring the newest SP for new applications is par for the course in Redmond even before they yank residual support for it.

The compatibility view toggle icon in the address bar seems to be gone as far as I can tell. You turn it on through the menus now (tools -> compatibility view settings), but it unfortunately limits you to the main domain name (e.g. arstechnica.com, google.com). So if a single URL or subdomains (e.g. fake.arstechnica.com, maps.google.com) needs compatibility mode, it forces you to take the entire domain to compatibility mode as far as I can tell.

We have a local app that this is affecting. I doubt the site even actually needs compatibility mode, it's probably due only to using bad/old IE "fixes" for things that are only necessary with old IE versions. Hopefully the updated app version we're switching to soon won't need compatibility mode.

One of the issues with IE11 is that it no longer uses MSIE in its user agent string, which can break a lot of websites expecting to run IE specific code based on finding that. Instead they were using a "like gecko" user agent so that sites would think IE11 would render things just as firefox or another gecko based browser would.

One of the issues with IE11 is that it no longer uses MSIE in its user agent string, which can break a lot of websites expecting to run IE specific code based on finding that. Instead they were using a "like gecko" user agent so that sites would think IE11 would render things just as firefox or another gecko based browser would.

One of the issues with IE11 is that it no longer uses MSIE in its user agent string, which can break a lot of websites expecting to run IE specific code based on finding that. Instead they were using a "like gecko" user agent so that sites would think IE11 would render things just as firefox or another gecko based browser would.

I don't really consider that much of an issue. They've been trying to kill browser-specific implementations since IE9 launched and abandoning MSIE is just part of that.

Frankly, it's one of the things I actually applaud the IE team for doing.

I don't consider it a bad thing, but it is an issue, because there are lots of broken websites that don't work with IE11. I use all browsers, but I use IE quite a bit, so I notice the differences. Some things are just broken that were not in IE10. It isn't the browser so much as the site specific JS implementations that are not accounting for changes in IE11.

Grr, my Windows 7 refuses to take an update to IE9 and fails every single day installing at 3 AM. If anyone knows of a way to force a new IE install that'd be great.

IE9 has a number of missing HTML5/CSS3 features that IE10 added. IE11 went a step further and barely lags Chrome in feature implementation.

It's a bit technical, but I would say try the System Update Readiness Tool. You may have some broken files that are preventing IE from being installed.

Be sure to read the "What does it do?" and "Logging" sections under "More Information" to get a better understanding of how it works. If it finds some things are broken but can't be repaired, you'll have to copy the files from another Win7 PC of the same version (x86 or x64) and preferably the same edition to the SRT's detect locations and run the utility again. Good luck!

Removing "MSIE" from the user agent may have been too daring a move on their part...so many sites are still going to find any way they can to equate "This fully HTML5 browser made by Microsoft" with "IE6 - use all fallback code."

There needs to be a plugin for IE11 that makes it pretend to be Firefox in more ways than just the User Agent - skip any conditional HTML comment statements, elude any advanced browser-detection code, etc. Then, when the site works, use that to shame the site's developers.

I haven't used Windows 7 in a while except in one of my VMs, but I can say that IE11 on Windows 8.1--when it works--is amazingly fast, and the touch implementation on tablets is pretty great. It was a little unstable out of the gate, but Microsoft has already pushed updates that greatly improve it.

There are sites that still break, but I'm now pointing the finger more at the site designers than at Microsoft. With the browser rolling out to the huge Windows 7 user base, perhaps more sites will have incentive to properly support "modern" IE.

I just installed it, and it is blazing fast. I can confirm, though, that it does drop Outlook Web App on our Exchange 2010 SP1 Update Rollup 8 to the "light version" and breaks drop menus on our Cisco Phone Server UIs (CallManager 8.6.2.21900-5, Unity Connection 8.6.2ES44.22900-44, and Unified Presence 8.6.4.10000-28) and Java 7u45 browser plug-in handling (but this was "broken" by IE10 and carried forward) without Compatibility Mode.

EDIT: clarity

EDIT 2: Yes, I know Exchange 2010 SP1 is no longer supported. My team lead doesn't want to make the jump to SP2/3 yet b/c of the downtime required- we only have one Exchange server and are looking at moving to 2013 next year anyway.

Removing "MSIE" from the user agent may have been too daring a move on their part...so many sites are still going to find any way they can to equate "This fully HTML5 browser made by Microsoft" with "IE6 - use all fallback code."

There needs to be a plugin for IE11 that makes it pretend to be Firefox in more ways than just the User Agent - skip any conditional HTML comment statements, elude any advanced browser-detection code, etc. Then, when the site works, use that to shame the site's developers.

It would be great if they could wait until every website wised up and changed their code but at some point MS has to say "enough is enough". Yes they risk some websites being broken for awhile but at this point I think it's the only way to motivate change.

In related news, I just saw that next month Google Apps is going to no longer support IE9, and will instruct people to upgrade. Since upgrades to IE10 and IE11 are automatic, this will kick a lot of people onto the automatic-upgrade path! Yes!

Ok Ars readers, who here actually uses IE outside of the work place? I haven't in years, lastly using the Windows Update website after installing a fresh copy of XP. Again, years!

Ars has a large faction of Microsoft-fans, so I'll assume they use IE too.

Nevermind that MS still uses the most important piece of software (from a user perspective) to bully users into upgrading.

Vista didn't get IE11 for no technical reason and 7 users can only hope they'll get IE12. Chrome and FF on the other hand still support XP. Go figure.

If you recommend people use IE, you basically set them up to be stranded. Bad enough for them and their security but really aggrevating for web designers. Apple does the same thing with Safari, but their users pick up the latest OSX versions far more reliably and due to the low market share of OSX, the total numbers of users on outdated Safari version are slim. And even then, Safari was always superior to IE, so a couple of people surfing the web on Safari 4 aren't breaking too many things.

At least IE10, the browser MS leaves Vista with, supports enough of the CSS3 features to not cripple the web too much.But how (knowledged) people can condone this practice by MS of exposing their users to hazards and a substandard web experience is beyond me.

There are sites that still break, but I'm now pointing the finger more at the site designers than at Microsoft.

HAHAHAHA people now blaming web developers because Microshaft has 6 different browsers we have to cater to and the most recent one wont even let you write code specifically for it.

Wow....

You can write code specifically for it if you really want to be dirty but there are vanishingly few ligitimate reasons to do so. Similarly very few sites write code specifically for a version of Firefox or Chrome, which is as it should be.

There are sites that still break, but I'm now pointing the finger more at the site designers than at Microsoft.

HAHAHAHA people now blaming web developers because Microshaft has 6 different browsers we have to cater to and the most recent one wont even let you write code specifically for it.

Wow....

You can write code specifically for it if you really want to be dirty but there are vanishingly few ligitimate reasons to do so. Similarly very few sites write code specifically for a version of Firefox or Chrome, which is as it should be.

Many sites do use feature detection which is a far better method.

Agreed you should use feature detection if you have some specific feature... but we're talking basic features here. Things that worked in IE10 that are now breaking in IE11....